The game repeats itself every year. Marketing executives are getting nervous about the upcoming main shopping season. Last year I provided some tips on how you can
prepare your web-shop for holiday shoppers. Let me do this, again.
Since I do not know details about your business, I can only share some general strategic advice with you. But it's really kind of scary. Far too many e-commerce stores provide a poor user experience and lack of functionality. There is a lot of money being left on the table. But you can avoid this altogether in your own business.
Make sure your e-commerce site passes the most basic requirements
In a nutshell.
- Cut Down On Abandoned Carts
- Immediately send a follow up email sequence.
- Retarget them with ads.
- Build Your Email List
- Offer discounts and coupons in exchange for email signups.
- Provide valuable insights in your emails that they couldn’t get elsewhere. For example, if you sell coffee products, provide people with tips for making the best cup of coffee.
- Offer a rewards program for those who sign up.
- Use The Power Of The Upsell
- First, many times customers aren’t aware that you offer better options.
- Second, customers may not understand why they need the upgrade.
- Crush It On Instagram
- Ask those who have purchased to post pictures of themselves using your product on Instagram.
- Develop a unique hashtag around your product that users can share.
- Run contests where you give away products.
- Consider giving away products to influencers in exchange for them posting photos.
- Engage with your customers in the comments section of photos.
- Let Customers Create Wishlists
- This ties in closely to abandoned carts. There will be many times when a customer simply wants to mark an item for the future, rather than purchase it in the moment.
- Once people begin adding items to their wishlists, you can periodically remind them of these items through email or Facebook retargeting ads.
- Wishlists also let you cross sell more effectively. When you know what your customers want, you can promote other closely related items.
- Have A Store That Really Works
- Write clear, compelling product descriptions. Include the design specifications, but don’t go on endlessly about them. Rather, focus on the benefits of the product.
- Include easy to see, zoomable, professional photos. If your pictures are grainy or look like they were taken in a garage, people won’t want to purchase.
- Make your site simple to navigate. Clearly divide products into the proper categories and subcategories and make your menus simple to use.
- If possible, include product demonstration videos.
- Secure Product Reviews
- A simple way to generate product reviews is to send a follow up email several weeks after a purchase asking the customer to review the product. If they have a complaint about the product, you can address it then as well.
- Hyper Focus Your Ad Spending
- The beauty of online advertising is you can make it incredibly focused
Conclusion
- eCommerce shouldn’t be complicated. Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, you need to put in the time. But if you know what to do, you can find success.
- The most successful eCommerce companies have won because they’ve persisted. They’ve determined what works and what doesn’t.
- The formula goes something like this:
Time + Experience + Experiments = Success
- Don’t give up. Stick to the formula.
This info should not be new for you, if you are in the e-commerce business for some time. But I bet, you have not implemented all of these 8 ideas.
Get to work.
Yours
John
__________
Source: 8 Powerful Ecommerce Marketing Strategies To Boost Your Sales (↑) written by John Hawthorne, Jun 30, 2017. Original site deleted. Lookup via Wayback Machine in April 2019.
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Recently I wrote a reminder to get your web shop and marketing campaigns ready for the holiday shopping season (↑). In case you have not setup a web shop already or if you want to change yours, here are some open source platforms to choose fr
Tracked: Oct 08, 19:59